Jim Hanson

Jim was the top rider in the Century Challenge for the year 2000 - the first year that the Challenge was held! That year the Challenge was a local Iowa-Illinois event and most of the participants were from the Quad Cities area. The results for the 2000 Challenge were maintained online but not on the Big Dogs web site, so I am not certain what Jim's totals were  - but I do recall that there was a bit of a scramble for the top place Hanson versus Steve Bagby of Knoxville, IA., toward the end of the year

---

Lisa Paulos

Lisa was the mileage leader of the women in 2000 with 8000 plus miles. She also rode more centuries than any other woman involved in the 2000 Century Challenge. Lisa (AKA the Iowa Ultra Queen) along with her husband and a couple of Quad Cities Dogs provided the initial spark that was to become the first Y2K Century Challenge.

---

Paul Pierce

Paul not only topped the totals for the number of Centuries in 2001, he completed the Mad Dog Challenge, wherein he was required to ride as many centuries per month as the month number. January - 1 Century all the way up to 12 in December! Some of the best log comments ever are located in the last few months of 2001 in Paul's logs. In 2001 Paul rode 109 Centuries Paul is also the main BD shutterbug!

---

Lynn Pierce

Lynn, along with husband Jeff, is a long time Big Dog who has led the women's category in centuries for 5 out of 8 years! She completed the Big Dogs Triple Crown and has done numerous Hell Weeks! No relation to Paul!   Century Count 2001: 40 2003: 40 2004: 64 2005: 82 2006: 90

---

Tom Buckleyo

Tom Buckley found time to log a few miles on the Dogs site in the early 2000's - after finishing a couple RAAM rides! Tom started riding with the Big Dogs in 2001 and immediately reset the bar! In 2001 Tom logged 23109 miles and in 2003 he again led the pack with 19421 miles. During this time Tom also won the National 24 and in 2001 he completed BMB in 54 hours!

---

Larry Schwartz

Larry started logging miles with the Big Dogs in 2002 and set records that have yet to be broken. The Texan spent more days in the year doing centuries than he did not. Logging 203 centuries and 26104 miles, Larry is the only person to ride more than 200 centuries in one year.  In 2003, Larry was on the way to another recrod year when he was struck  by a school bus and died of the injuries incurred by that accident.

---

Merry Vander Linden

Merry is another of our long time women riders. Since 2001 Merry dominated the mileage class among women riders. In 2002, Merry won her class at the Iowa 24 hour race. Centuries 2002: 43 Miles 2001: 8479 2002: 10625 2003: 9409 2004: 9259 2005: 10133

---

Wayne Hanno

The Ultra Big Dog! Wayne only made the top spot one year - but then the competition for miles was fierce at that time, with Tom, Wayne, Scott Dixon and Larry all hammering like - well, Big Dogs! Wayne was one of the originators of the first Y2K Century Challenge and issued that challenge to the Quad Cities Bike Club in December of 1999! Wayne did 118 centuries in 2003.

---

Don Utter

Don appeared on the Big Dogs site in early 2004. At the time he was wintering in Florida and it appeared that he was riding a century a day forever! Luckily for Jeff Pierce, when Don got back to New York he slowed down enough that Jeff caught him in the century race, but Don plugged in enough miles to take that class for the year. 18589 miles in 2004!

---

Jeff Pierce

Another Pierce! Jeff was introduced to the Big Dogs in March of 2001 as the Red Rocket. And he is. Jeff completed the Big Dogs Triple Crown twice in 2001! That is 6 double centuries in one season! Jeff and Lynn are the premier cycling couple in the group! Centuries 2004: 100 2005: 106 2006: 125 Miles 2006: 16600

---

Kay Covington

When Kay started logging with the Big Dogs she raised the bar for women's mileage totals. A Hell Week veteran and randonneur Kay has set records for yearly miles in both years that she as ridden with the Dogs. Miles 2006: 11922 2007: 11242

---

Larry Ide

Indefatigable! Larry rides like a kid with a new bike! In the few years that he has been ultracycling Larry has done numerous rides,  won the Saratoga 24 hour race, the UltraMidwest 24 hour race and taken top honors two years in the Big Dogs standings! 2005 Miles: 16333 2007 Centuries: 119

---

Melissa Hall

This is the person that provides reading material for everyone with her prosaic daily logs! Melissa really took off in 2007! After a few years of consistent riding with the LBC, Melissa topped everyone in the women's century category with 59 centuries in 2007!

---

Paul Carpenter

Originally from the UK Paul has made his mark in biking here in the colonies! Paul has been a regular at UltraMidwest events and in 2007 he won the Texas 500 Mile Time Trials completing 25 20 mile loops in 30 hours, 57 minutes. In 2007 Paul was the first to break the 20000 mile mark in five years with 20717 miles!

---

Dave Holmes

Dave Holmes participated in the Century Challenge for just one year, in 2000. Dave was nevertheless a Big Dog at heart! He was a tireless organizer of the 12 and 24 hour Championship, the Race Across Iowa in the early 90's and of countless RUSA Brevets. Dave was killed while riding in the summer of 2004 on a county road near his home in Eldridge, Iowa.

---